Opeu-hearth furnace



A. MILLER.

OPEN HEARTH FURNACE.

APPLICATION man APR.29, 1918.

1,309, 149. Patented July 8, 1919.

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A MILLER.

OPEN HEARTH FURNACE APPLICATlON FILED APR.29.1918.

l ,309, 1 49, Patented July 8, 1919. Z 2 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

F4002 LEVEL 6 7 m I 2 5472 1; 12 P /J Kim Z w wk I u77'70772Q5/5 UNITEDSTATES PATENT onnron ALBERT MILLER, 0F BUFFALO, NEW YORK.

OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE.

Application filed April 29, 1918.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ALBERT MILLER, a citizenof the United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie andState of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements inOpen-Hearth Furnaces, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates more particularly to openhearth furnaces.

As commonly constructed, the ilues and slag-pockets of such furnacesgradually become plugged with slag, requiring their walls as well asparts of the hearth to be taken down and rebuilt about every six months.This work involves considerable expense and entails great loss of time,as it requires from five to six weeks.

It has been proposed to overcome this objection, as regards the renewalof the air and gas fines and slag-pockets, by providing at the lowerends of such flues chambers adapted to receive slag-ladles orreceptacles mounted on trucks running upon tracks in such chambers. Thebottoms of these chambers were on a level with the furnace-floor oryard, with the result that the slagdadles were subjected. to the intenseheat of the air and gases passing through the lines and were practicallymelted and fused to the walls of the surrounding chambers or lines,necessitating the breaking out of the walls to remove the ladles orcars.

The objects of my invention are to im prove the construction andarrangement of the slag-receiving and removing means with a view ofovercoming the above objection; to materially reduce the extent ofrenewal of the parts required from time to time and the incidentalexpense, and at the same time to permit a nractically continuousoperation of the furnace during the removal of the slag.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure l is a longitudinal section of about one-half of an open-hearthfurnace embodying the invention, theother half being identical therewithand therefore not shown in the drawings. Fig. 2 is a fragmentarytransverse section on line 22, Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are horizontalsections on the correspondingly numbered lines in Fig. 2.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe several views.

1 indicates the hearth which may be of any suitable or ordinaryconstruction. 2 indicates the usual gas flue located at oneSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented J uly. 8, 191%).

Serial No. 231,345.

end of thefurnace and communicating with the hearth by the customarygas-port 3, while i indicates the corresponding air flue whichcommunicates with the hearth by a similar port 5, shown by dotted linesin Fig. 1. A pair of similar gas and air fines is located at theopposite end of the furnace in communication with the hearth. These airand gas fines are connected with the customary checker chambers, and theusual valves, not shown, are employed for reversing the gas and aircurrents through the hearth from time to time, in a manner common tothis class of furnaces. A portion of one of these checker chambers isindicated at 6.

In the preferred construction, the bottom of each of the gas and airfines is hopper-shaped or inclined and slopes toward a slag-dischargethroat or passage 7 formed in said bottom. This passage leads into a pitor chamber 8 preferably arranged wholly below the floor level of thefurnace and extending laterally beyond the walls of said fiues, as shownin Fig. 2. Arranged in each pit underneath the corresponding slagpassage7 is a portable slag-ladle or wheeled receptacle 9 adapted! to receivethe slag therefrom and carried by suitable trucks 10 which run upontracks or rails 11 laid on the bottom of the pit, lengthwise thereof, orin other words, transversely of the furnace as a whole. These railspreferably slope toward the front or exit end of the pit, as shown bydotted lines in Fig. 2, and a suitable buffer 12 is applied to the frontwall of the pit in the proper position to receive the impact of theladle. The front portion of each pit is provided in its top with anopening of suflicient size to receive the slagladle, which opening isnormally closed by a lid 13 which is opened to remove the filledslag-ladle from time to time. In practice, these ladles are hoisted anddumped into steel cars or any other suitable place of deposit, by acrane not shown in the drawings.

As shown at 8 in the drawings, the front portion or compartment of eachpit is preferably widened or enlarged to leave spaces or places ofsafety for the operatives.

Preferably located transversely in each pit or chamber 8 is a suitableupright door or damper 14 adapted to be closed to cut oil the outeratmosphere from the pit and the flue connected therewith during theoperation of the furnace, or opened to permit in the drawings.

It may be desirable to regulate the temperatnre of the air in theladle-pits from time to time. To permit this, appropriate air fiues 15are extended from the interior of the pits to points accessible at orabove the ground, where they are provided with lids or dampers 16 of anysuitable constrnction. As shown, these fiues extend vertically throughthe side walls of the pits and thence horizontally, their exitends beingcomparatively wide, as shown at 15. These air fines are however notessential and may be omitted, if desired.

In the operation of the furnace, the slagladles or receptacles 9 aremoved underneath the discharge throats 7 of theair and gas fines, beingheld in place on their inclined rails by blocking their wheels orotherwise, and the dampers 14 are lowered and the lids 13 closed. Theslag dropping from the hearth into the fines fiows into the ladles andwhen the latter are filled they are allowed to roll down the tracks intothe enlarged compartments of the pits 8, whence they are removed andemptied, as hereinbefore described, and then replaced. During theoperation of the furnace, the outer air is excluded from the pits by thedoors l3 and dampers 14L, preventing chilling of the slag and itsadhesion to the walls of the fines.

It will be noted that the slag-ladles are a considerable distance belowthe lower ends or inclined bottoms of the air and gas fines, where theyare remote from the intensely heated air and gas in the latter. They aretherefore protected from destruction by the heat and not liable to meltor become dis torted, greatly prolonging their life and avoiding thedanger of their adhering to the walls of the furnace and the necessityof cutting out the latter. This important advantage is attained byplacing the pits which receive the slag-ladles a considerable distanceunderground or below the yard-level or floor-level of the furnace, asshown in the drawings. Pits having their bottoms located about ten feetbelow that level and ladles having their upper ends located about twoand a half feet below said level are satisfactory for this purpose, the

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five'cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

sloping, bottoms of the fines being preferably located a few feet abovethe yard level, as shown in Fig. 2.

By this construction and arrangement of the parts, the ladles arelocated wholly outside of the intense heat currents or zones in thebottoms of the air and gas fines, protecting the ladles, as abovedescribed, and keeping them intact for a relatively long period of time.

This construction also insures the free discharge of the slag from thefines into the slag-ladles and the fines therefore remain comparativelyclear or unclogged for a considerably longer period than the fiues ofordinary furnaces of this type. Their renewal is therefore-required muchless frequently, effecting a very important saving in time and moneyevery six months, at which intervals other parts of the furnace, such asthe hearthwalls, require renewal.

lVhile possessing these advantages, the improvement affords theadditional important one of permitting the uninterrupted operation ofthe furnace by the provision of the door or damper 14.

I'claim as my invention:

1. The combination with a furnace hav ing a hearth and a down-finearranged to receive slag therefrom, of a pit located be low thefloor-level of the furnace and eX- tending laterally beyond said fine, awheeled slag-receptacle movable into and out of said pit and adapted toreceive the slag from said fine, and retractable means for excluding airfrom said pit, located between its front and rear portions.

2. The combination with afurnace having a hearthand a down-fine arrangedto receive slag therefrom, of a pit located below the floor-level of thefurnace, a wheeled slag-receptacle movable into and out of said pit andadapted to receive the slag from said fine, said pit having an openingin its top for the entrance and exit of said receptacle, a lid appliedto said opening, anda vertically-sliding door arranged in said pitbetween said lid and the rear portion of the pit.

3. The combination with a furnace having a hearth and a down-finearranged to receive slag therefrom, a pit located under neath said fineand arranged below the fioorlevel of the furnace, a slag-receptaclemovable into and out of said pit, an air-fine leading from the interiorof said pit to the outer atmosphere, and a regulating damper applied tothe last-named flue.

ALBERT MILLER.

Washington, 1L0.

